Posted on 02/25/2006 4:21:24 PM PST by SwordofTruth
On Sunday, the Australian government issued the following alert to its citizens: "We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in the United Arab Emirates because of the high threat of terrorist attack. We continue to receive reports that terrorists are planning attacks against Western interests in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Commercial and public areas frequented by foreigners are possible terrorist targets."
The United States has approved a business deal that would turn over the operation of six major American ports to a company that is owned by the UAE, the very country Australians are to be wary of visiting. The obvious question: If it is dangerous for an Australian to travel to the UAE because of terrorism, isn’t it even more dangerous for a company owned by the UAE to own the rights to American ports where terror might be directly, or indirectly, imported?
There have been some dumb decisions since the United States was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, including the "welcoming" of radical Muslim groups, mosques and schools that seek by their preaching and teaching to influence U.S. foreign policy and undermine the nation. But the decision to sell port operations in New York, Newark-Port Elizabeth, Baltimore, Miami, Philadelphia and New Orleans to a company owned by the UAE may be the dumbest of all.
Security experts repeatedly have said American ports are poorly protected. Each year, approximately 9 million cargo containers enter the United States through its ports. Repeated calls to improve port security have gone mostly unheeded.
In supporting the sale decision by a little-known interagency panel called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the Bush administration dismissed security concerns. National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones said the sale of the ports for $6.8 billion to Dubai Ports World was "rigorously reviewed" by the committee, which, he said, considers security threats when foreign companies seek to buy or invest in American industry. Apparently, money talked louder than common sense.
In a rare display of bipartisanship, congressional Republicans and Democrats are forging an alliance to reverse the decision. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has announced plans for her Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs to hold hearings. Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Frank Lautenberg, DN.J., who are members of Collins’ committee, have raised concerns. New York’s Democratic senators, Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton have also objected to the sale. Clinton and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., expect to offer a bill to ban companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from acquiring U.S. port operations.
In the House, Reps. Chris Shays, R-Conn.; Mark Foley, R-Fla.; and Vito Fossella, R-N.Y., are among those who want to know more about the sale. In a House speech, Foley said, "The potential threat to our country is not imagined; it is real."
The UAE was used as a financial and operational base by some of the 9/11 hijackers. A New York Times editorial said the sale takes the Bush administration’s "laxness to a new level."
Members of Congress may wish to consider that the UAE was an important transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components bound for Iran, North Korea and Libya by a Pakistani scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan. The UAE was one of only three countries to recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government before the U.S. invasion toppled it.
The Department of Homeland Security says it is legally impossible under Committee on Foreign Investment rules to reconsider approval of the sale without evidence the Dubai company gave false information or withheld details from U.S. officials. Congress should change that law.
Last year, Congress overwhelmingly recommended against the Bush administration granting permission to a Chinese company to purchase the U.S. oil services company UNOCAL. Six years ago, when a Chinese company took control of the Panama Canal from the United States, retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Thomas H. Moorer warned of a "nuclear Pearl Harbor."
Congress must stop this sale of American ports to foreign interests and, in an era of terrorism, prevent any more potential terrorist targets from falling into the hands of those who wish to destroy us.
Cal Thomas writes for Tribune Media Services.
cal@calthomas.com
Pray tell, Miss Cleo?
You can't keep posting your projections and dire fears without specifying.
Your projection complex is far worse than even I had assumed.
I suggest that you go wash your hands and face, get someone to help you post, and explain the riles of posting to you.
BTW.....your excuses and personal attacks aren't even on the first grade level. Go find a six year old to help you formulate your next insult filled reply.
You're completely wrong about that and everything else; for that matter.
What or who is Cleo? :)
It's strictly my opinion, nothing more or less. Since I've been wrong in the past many times like everyone else feel free to disregard everything I say.
That's all any of the nay sayers do...post their own hysteric delusions and call them "fact".
You opined the consequences will be worse if the sale to DWP goes thruough. That's nonsense given the facts.
Miss Cleo is a fortune teller.
You have mail
Thanks! :-)
Yes it's only my opinion but it's based on what I'm reading. Congressmen are saying across the country people are up in arms over the deal and they've never seen them this worked up over an issue. If that's true they need to cut their losses and move on before things escalate. Remember both of our goals are the same, I don't want to see a democratic Congress either.
P&O. The purchase of that UK Company will make DPW the worlds 3rd largest shipping company.
That may be true. I'm not totally up to speed on CSI. One thing to remember, CSI is not in every port that ships to the US, so we have to check them here also. It is possible, that the ones checked overseas through CSI may not get checked here. I'll check on out Intra net site next time I'm at work.
They reacted to the fabricated crisis! MSM loves this as do democrats and GOP congree people up for reelection this year.
The back peddling has started. Hastert, Grahma, even Schumer, who knew better when he lied because his damn wife is highly placed at HY's port authority.
It's politics at its lowest --- playing on the fears of national security and trashing the toughest man in the WOT (POTUS).
Why do you believe this? Even Bush himself said he only recently found out about it, which makes his threat of vetoing any law blocking this deal all the more strange.
Am I really being obtuse, or merely being provocative?
I thank God for that small favor...lol.
You want the deal to be overturned, perhaps leading to the loss of the WOT, because of POLITICS?
He made the veto threat AFTER he got the facts from the committee.
Hastert is supposed to be doing something about it Tuesday but who knows maybe they are backpeddaling. I still think at the very least the deal will be extended and not cancelled. Washington is just way too unpredicatable for me to ever be certain about anything.
It's politics for the democrats, pure hatred for the MSM and many of the third party types.
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